Breathers
by Aeschylean
Summary: Becky is nineteen years old and lost in a world were man is no longer the hunter, but the hunted.
1. Default Chapter

Note: I revised the original because I had written it at one o'clock in the morning and didn't really re-read it to make sure there were no errors. Here is the edited and hopefully, better draft.  
  
Chapter One  
Realization  
  
My hands trembled as I pulled the onions from the frozen ground. Our crop of vegetables was meager at best, I only hoped it would get better. Every day there is less and less food for us to eat.  
  
Suddenly the hairs on the back of neck stood up, I turned my face to the sky. It was bright and clear. No sign of the Fire Breathers. Something was wrong however, I knew in the depths of my soul that there was danger. "Ray!" I whispered loudly. Less than ten feet away, Ray our outing leader, didn't answer. I picked up a loose pebble and threw it at him hitting him squarely in the head. He looked up startled and rubbed the spot where I had hit. I gestured at him to look towards me. "Something's wrong!" I mouthed. Ray looked up at the sky. It was still clear. You could see the peaks of Rockies and the tips of trees that bordered their tops. There was no danger in site. However as if on queue, the sound of hawk caught our attention. That was the call of one of our scouts. A Breather had been spotted. We ran for our vehicle. Out of the clearing two figures came running. Ray had already started the engine, "Come on Becky! Put the baskets in the back! Hurry!" he barked at me.  
  
The two scout had barely reached us and gotten in vehicle when I spotted it. The Breather came crashing through the trees, running at full speed. Ray hit the gas and the truck lurched forwards. "I told you it was coming!" I yelled at him. He ignored me and pushed on the gas pedal even harder. We weren't out running the Breather, it seemed to be gaining on us.  
  
"Theo calling Grange. Theo calling Grange!" Theo, one of the scouts was screaming into our two way radio. All that answered him was static. "Theo calling Grange!" he shouted again. Finally there was a reply. "Grange responding. You're breaking up Theo." "We got a Breather on our tail. A runner it looks like!" he was still shouting. Runners are wingless Breathers. My dad told me they called them dragons once, but dragons are myth. These Fire Breathers are real. "We need back up!" "Roger, sending back up now." Suddenly there was a jolt on the back of the truck. I turned away from the Theo to see that Breather had taken the bumper off our vehicle. "Shit." the other scout, Harvey cursed. I don't know how I heard it. The truck, the stampeding of the Breather and the beating of my own heart, were deafening. But I heard the 'copter nonetheless. It came whizzing over the trees. I would of whooped and thrown my hands up, but I was to busy holding onto the truck bed wall, for my life. It wouldn't be to spectacular to fall out of this moving vehicle and be right in the path of the Breather. It may distract the Breather from getting the others, but it sure wouldn't help me any. You can't do any good for anyone from the inside of it's stomach. I never saw the Helicopter launch the rocket, but soon the Breather was exploding into little pieces. "Theo calling Copter! Now get yourselves out of there!" Theo yelled into the radio. I watched it zoom into the distance. Ray never slowed down and my heart was still in my throat, but now we had a greater chance of getting home in one piece.  
  
"Hector, I'm telling you something's up!" Mika, who headed another scavenger division, said when we were eating dinner that night, "Every time we go out, we always run into them. We've lost six people in the last month alone to Breathers. It's like they know when we come out of hiding."  
  
"How can they Mika?" he shot back, "We don't have any patterns for them to follow!" I sat and watched them argue, wondering if it would of been better to be Breather lunch, than sit here listening to them squabble.  
  
"All I can say is, watching that Breather blown to bits was sure satisfying." Theo said with his mouth full. Quite a few people in our little 'commune' agreed with him.  
  
I stared at my food. I really wasn't hungry. Suddenly I had lost my appetite. "Becky are you going to eat that?" Greg, a tall blonde man several years my senior asked pointing at my plate. I shook my head and he promptly scraped my food onto his.  
  
No one noticed me leave. There were forty people living in our community under ground. Ten men, twelve women and eighteen children.  
  
Our community was fourteen feet beneath the earth's surface. Probably not deep enough to matter much against the Breathers, but it kept us relatively safe. Niches had been carved into the walls. Each held a glowing candle, which reflected off the limestone rock making the hallways and passages seem warm and colorful, and not so close-in and prison like.  
  
Every so often I passed one of the large alcoves that was the sleeping quarters of one of the families. Some were full with children laughing, some lay empty. Any more there seems to be more and more empty ones, than filled.  
  
Along the top of the passages, a long wire was attached. Every passage and hallway, every alcove, cavern, every room where human life could be found, were laced with these wires.  
  
In the likely event that a Breather was spotted close to home the wire would light up, warning us of an impending attach and telling those not able to fight, to head deeper under ground. I remember being told as a child to sleep with one eye open to watch the wire. It has never lit up in my lifetime. I hoped it never would.  
  
I dreamed of the wingless Breather that night. I was running. The world sped by in a blur, trees melting into trees. The Breather was chasing me. I could feel its breath on the back of my neck.  
  
"Just run," I kept repeating to myself. But it was gaining. I could hear the trees crashing beneath its feet. "Run, run faster!"  
  
Suddenly fire engulfed me. I could feel its warmth and the tingling that comes from first contact with flame. Then I could feel it burn. I awoke screaming a soundless scream. My body was drenched in sweat. That nightmare was too real for comfort. I put my head in my hands and tried to wipe it from my memory.  
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I say two big red eyes starring at me. I remembered the eyes of the Breather; they'd been deep red, blood red. I looked up sharply, Chester my fat tabby cat jumped onto my bed and curled up at my feet. I could have kicked him for scaring me like that. I laid back down and promptly fell back asleep. 


	2. Sarcasm and Sugar

Chapter Two  
Sarcasm and Sugar  
  
The dreams continued to haunt me for days after the initial attack my group and I had when we were on our outing. Outings are out trips above ground to plant crops, harvest crops, hunt for food or scavenge the land for supplies.  
There are six troops of people who go on the outings. Each group is assigned an area or task and each has a leader to command them. We all had names as well.  
My group was named Creepers, mostly because of an earlier member (who is dead now by the way), who crept through the trees to look for Breathers. Basically, we were scouts on the big missions. That is when we are not doing the small stuff like planting onions and then picking them. Planting tomatoes or corn or even strawberries would be more exciting and worth while than onions. Ah well, that's my opinion anyway.  
The Black Hawks were run by Hector himself. They were the ones who flew our helicopters and our one small plane. They also manned the guns at the compound above ground.  
Mika Johnson, headed the Red Runners. They were like the Creepers. So where the Jack Rabbits, and the Bull Frogs. The Holy Trinity on the other hand, were the soldiers. They rarely did anything in the way of hunting or harvesting. The scavenged the land for anything useful.  
Don't ask me where all the names came from. Personally I think someone was just really bored and thought that they were being cute. I renamed everybody secretly, like the Black Hawks are really in fact called Overcompensating-for-something. Creepers are Chickens-for-the-Slaughter. Red Runners are Crunchy-to-Breathers. Bull Frogs are Soon-to-die-from- stupidity. Jack Rabbits are Every-man-for-themself. And finally, the Holy Trinity is really, Egotistical-Cowards. Yeah that about sums us all up.  
Okay, so maybe I'm being a little cynical, but let's look at the facts all right? The Black Hawks are run by Hector, thus they get all the good supplies including weapons. They're favorites, plain and simple, plus they like to rub it in our faces that they are Black Hawks and we aren't. I guess you could call them the generals of our little 'army'.  
The Holy Trinity are no better, except they never do anything really. The Black Hawks will at least come to our rescue sometimes. We haven't scavenged anything but food in months! And when we do, it's never the Holy Trinity who do it. Usually its us 'lower life forms' who end up doing all the work.  
The Bull Frogs are just stupid. Their super loyal to Hector, which is a death sentence and they believe that the Breathers will just leave you alone if you play dead. Of course most of them aren't playing after a Breather attacks. They are, and have always been, the quickest team to empty of people. And I'm not saying that those individuals quit, I'm saying they died. Quite horribly too.  
The Red Runners, I like them I really do. I just think in the end, if you go above ground and set yourself up like that, you're bound to die. I like Mika the best. Out of everyone here, she's almost a mother to me. Almost anyway.  
The Jack Rabbits are aptly named. They are quick on their feet and can usually out run the Breathers. But their motto is, "if you get left behind, well your out of luck because we're not going back for you." That's why they're quick on their feet.  
Now to the Creepers, my battalion. We're going to die. That's all I can say. Hector is bound to kill us out of pure stupidity. Ray, our leader is all right though. A little on the slow side, but all right.  
So I'm not too optimistic. In this life, it's dangerous to be. And no, I really don't care much for the individuals running our whole shebang. Unfortunately, I am related to a whole bunch of them too.  
For instance, Hector is my Uncle, on my dads side. Ray is a second cousin from my mom's side. Mika is my half sister and well those are really the only individuals I am related to, that I've already introduced you to.  
My parents died when I was real young, about two, I think. Mika raised me almost. She's not a very patient person, so I was raised by anyone who gave a care, which is everyone in this 'happy' little commune. Can you taste my sarcasm yet?  
I've never ever liked it here. About a three years ago, when I was sixteen. This man showed up, what was his name? Van Zan, this cowboy from some military regiment, came to offer us his 'assistance'. It only cost us five men and a butt load of weapons and ammunition. Of course Hector did one of the only smart things he has ever done, he hid most of the weapons and ammo and most of our men so Zan would unknowingly leave them with us. Zan went and killed a couple Breathers, or so he claimed, then boastfully he told us, "the problem is now solved, you are safe." It was right after he left that the Runners and the Diggers, appeared.  
So he made things worse, took five of our men, two Helicopters, forty rifles and etc., etc.(this used to be a top secret military base, Norad I think it was called). I wanted to go with him. Get out of here, I told this much to Hector who I was close to then. He told me to stay. Said I was part of this community. I meant something here. What a bunch of crap.  
I learned how much I really meant to him when he put me in the Creepers. You see, Hector has a way to him. If he doesn't like you or if you piss him off, he'll assign you to one of the four gathering groups, Creepers, Red Runners, Jack Rabbits or Bull Frogs. Then he'll wait and watch you die. It's how he manages the population.  
I'm not being a cynic this time and it has nothing to with me being angry at him for making me stay. It has to do with one incident in particular, it happened after my first month on the Creepers about a year and half ago.  
I really don't know why we keep the last names. There really is no system left to make last names matter. Anyways, Ryan Dooley was another second cousin on my Mom's side.  
Anyhow, he pissed Hector off big time. Told Hector that he was lazy and a good-for nothing ignorant SOB. Said Hector was going to kill us all and wasn't fit to lead this community.  
Hector was so mad; he promoted him to lead the Bull Frogs. You'd think, at first glance, that this was a good thing. Outing leaders get power right? Well they also become responsible for the deaths of their own people. Having that kind of weight on you, can be suffocating.  
Ryan though, toughed it up and didn't complain. He lasted a hell of a lot longer than anyone suspected and he was damn good at his job. He brought in more crops and more food than any of the others before him or after. This made Hector even madder. He wanted Dooley dead, not a saint.  
One day though he got his wish. The first Runner was spotted. No one knew what to do about it. We'd never seen one like it before. Ryan got his people out of there and the food too, but he didn't make it. That Runner took a bite so big out him, that all there was left was the lower torso from the hips down. No one else had pissed Hector off since then.  
Baker Clark heads the Bull Frogs now. He volunteered for the job after Ryan died. But he is like the Holy Trinity, worth nothing, does nothing. They bring in the worst crops and they rarely bring enough of anything to do any good. He says it's because he doesn't want anything bad to happen to his people. I suspect he's just a coward.  
At noon, or at least that's what time I thought it might be, time doesn't mean anything when you're below ground, I sat on my bed petting my cat Chester. Hector had freezed the Creepers from going out today because of what happened last time.  
He's been mad at Ray for days, because he let that Runner take a bite out of one of our vehicles and for running the transmission into the ground trying to escape it. Of course Ray said nothing in his defense, you'd really be a fool not to stay silent. We all know arguing with Hector is pointless and deadly.  
"You know it's not the end of the world," Harvey, another Creeper said quietly. I look up to the entrance to my alcove and stared at him.  
"It's not the going out part, Harvey," I replied, "It's the being locked up like criminals because of something you didn't do."  
"Hector will cool off, he always does. Ray knows that, I know that, we all know that." Harvey shrugged.  
"I'm tired of all this Harv. That's it." I flopped down on to my bed. "Their getting smarter you know. I don't care what Hector says, their getting smarter."  
"I know. But what are we going to do about it Becky? We need to eat, we need supplies..."  
"And I know that too!" I interrupted. "But we need to start doing things different!"  
"How are we going to do things different?" He retorted. "Invite them to dinner and treat them like royalty? Hey, you're smarter than we thought! Welcome to the League of Higher Intelligence. Open only to beings that can think, reason and form strategies." his sarcasm hurt.  
"I don't know." I said defeatedly. I really didn't know. There just had to be a better way than what we were already doing.  
"Then don't worry about it Becky. Look, get some rest; enjoy this vacation while you can. Oh and stay out the way of any Black Hawks. They've been pushing Creeps, Runners and Frogs noses to the floor, so to speak." he informed me.  
"Thanks," I nodded at him to leave and then closed my eyes. The breather was there again, waiting for me. Taunting me. All I could do was blow a raspberry at it and think of some other dark monster in my memory to haunt me. Nothing came to mind, so the Runner and I, were all alone. 


	3. The Dark Room

Chapter Three  
The Dark Rooms  
  
The Trinity had not come back from the scavenger mission. A thread of fear and foreboding had crept into the minds of every individual who lived with in the Community. They'd been gone now for almost two weeks, and no one, not even Hector knew what to do.  
He wouldn't let anyone leave our little haven, even though we were running low on food. About two days ago, he finally decided to start rationing what there was left to eat.  
Everyone would meet in the main hall and get their portions. It felt like we were trapped and slowly suffocating to death. I couldn't take it anymore.  
I began seeking out the dark, forgotten spots of the old base, areas that no one inhabited anymore. It seemed like the dark corridors were endless and stretched into nothingness. I wish I could see the sky again. Only the Black Hawks are allowed to venture above ground.  
Eventually I found myself in a small room, somewhere deep beneath the mass of people. As my feet touched the old blue carpet of the room, billowing dust clouds wafed up to twirl around my lantern. Large monitors hang suspending from the ceiling and a lone podium stands silent before a large crest of an eagle carrying arrows. Pieces of broken chairs, lay like crumbled bodies on the floor.  
Dry blood could be seen, marring the large crest and at the foot of the podium a deep blackish stain glared at me. I recognized this room, though I had never physically seen it. Hector once told me that this was were the United States became the first nation to fall. He said that as the President of the former country had stood addressing the nation about the hopelessness and futility of fighting and defeating the Breathers. A rival, an over zealous man consumed with religion, believing this was the apocalypse, emerged from the crowd of reporters and in just a few blinding seconds had shot the nations leader. He tried to assumed control afterwards, but was killed by a frightened mob of people trying to flee a Breather when it attacked above ground just moments after he resurfaced.  
I guess they never really thought about cleaning up the blood mess. Hector thinks they might of left it, knowing that this era was over and that they had lost. What then was the point in cleaning up?  
I remember when I was five, I had snuck above ground during the night just so I could see the stars. For a small, breathless moment in time I believed the world to be beautiful and that everything, all the nastiness, the Breathers, death, they were non-existent. Eddy, my older brother, had come up and pulled me back beneath the surface. He always watched out for me. But now he's dead. That's what happens when you're careless enough to meet a Breather. You die.  
I moved on in the dark, towards a room that was to the left of the podium. A desk, dust, quiet memories that made little sense to me. These rooms were abandoned more than two decades before my birth.  
Suddenly I felt faint, the dark was pressing in on me. I had to escape these rooms and return to the community.  
I returned to the Haven commons room, only to find it empty. "So, where have you been?" I turned to find Mika standing furious behind me.  
"I took a walk. I needed to get away for awhile."  
"Away? And you didn't bother letting anyone know where you were going?" she asked, her lips in a tight line.  
"It's never been a problem before." I snapped back, "What is up? Why are you so angry?"  
"The Trinity is dead." she whispered.  
"I thought we had already come to that conclusion."  
"Ryan Connor showed up. He died about an hour ago. It seems Trinity didn't get very far." Mika began to hug her self. "They really did a number on him."  
I didn't know what to say. Silence suddenly filled the room. Mika wasn't particularly close to anyone, but she had been to Ryan. Which for the recorded, I never really understood. Seeing her like this nearly broke my heart. "I'm sorry Mika. I'm sorry I wandered off. I shouldn't have."  
"Look, Hector had called a meeting. So, we'll forget about it, come on." I followed her to another room, one I had only been in a handful of times.  
The meeting was already underway. Hector barely acknowledged our presence. "We have barely enough food to last a four more days," someone was shouting from the crowd. "We need to go out. We need to gather!"  
"How? We don't have enough weapons right now to defend ourselves." Hector shot back. "If what Ryan said was true, they are watching us. The moment we step outside they will kill use. Look we have the reserves. We've never touched them. There should be enough there to last a month, maybe two. By then things might be more calm." I leaned against the wall listening. Angry that we hadn't prepared earlier when we had the chance. But Hector was never one to see to far in the future.  
"Then let us go to reserves." Harvey spoke up.  
"What about the back door?" I asked suddenly, surprised to hear myself speak. Hector just stared at me. "You know the one on the other side of the complex. We've never used it. Maybe they don't know it's there." All eyes were suddenly locked on me.  
"I'll think about it." Hector finally replied. Then he stood and left the room. 


	4. Broken Image

Chapter Four  
Broken Image  
  
Snow fell softly to the ground, covering it in white. The Creepers stood huddled in the cold, rifles and bows posed and eyes alert. We'd managed to open the large steel doors that marked the rear east entrance. We then spent half an hour wading through piles of ruble and debris until we came upon the crumbling opening to the shaft's tunnel and the warped security fences that were supposed to protect the compound from the out side world.  
Now here we are, sentinels, scanning the horizon for danger, the perfect targets to bait the Breathers and the Runners, depending on which showed up first. However, so far everything seemed safe. "Okay kids, move out!" Harvey ordered, motioning us to start venturing into the unknown.  
I strained my hearing, trying to pick up any unusual sounds that could signify danger. The crunch of snow and the howling of the wind were the only sounds to greet meet me.  
We walked for what seemed hours, seeing nothing but forest and snow. This are was unfamiliar to us. We'd never ventured this way before. It was on the other side of the mountain.  
So far we had found very little. Tony tried to shoot a rabbit earlier with a hunting bow but missed. Probably for the best. On foot, the smell of blood would make us easy targets. As for the vegetation, most were hibernating for the winter and the ground was frozen so hard that we couldn't dig for roots. Not to mention what edible bark there would have been on trees, had been stripped a long time ago. Surprisingly, this was a good sign. The more animal life, the less chances there are of Breathers or Runner's being in the area.  
Suddenly I heard a slight humming sound. Quickly I recognized the sound of trucks. Cautiously, the Creepers faded into the trees. Two trucks with large snowplows appeared, one white, and one a black and gray truck, stripped of most color.  
"Whoa!" Harvey walked out of the shadows of the snow and flagged them down. As they pulled to a stop I recognized the drivers. They were Bull Frogs. Abbey and Frenchie.  
"Hey, how you all doing?" Abbey asked.  
Harvey shook his head. "You?" she motioned to a dead buck wrapped in a blue tarp in the back of the truck.  
"Well, guess what? You get a truck. The Rabbits found an old station a ways back and we filled the tanks." Archie grinned, stepping out of the beat up, dark truck, which made me groan inwardly. Although they had slapped on a new bumper, you could still see were the Runner had taken a nice bite out of it, from the Creeper's last jaunt out into the wide open.  
Soon the other truck and the Bull Frogs were heading home and I found myself in the passenger seat with a Frog named Denise driving the truck. Every one else was walking on the outside, scavenging and acting as look outs for trouble. I on the other hand stared bewildered at the GPS system that flickered on and off before me. "We should be near an old service road." I informed Denise. Then I spent a few minutes hitting the piece of crap trying to get it to stop from going in and out.  
"Hey cut that out! You're going the break it!" Denise yelled.  
"I'm not going to break it!" I shot back annoyed. Suddenly the truck lurched forwards and landed with a large thud.  
"I didn't do it!" Denise cried.  
"You were driving the car." I pointed out, while I looked out the window at the world beyond. To my right I notice this mound of snow. Upon further examination I realized it was the wreckage of a car. "We found the road."  
"Are you two alright??" Harvey came running up.  
"Yeah, but we should probably start digging the truck out." Denise replied shakily.  
"Fine. You okay Denise?" he asked. She nodded, "Great, but I want Beka to drive okay?" An hour later we were on our way, slowly plowing the snow and bouncing along the abandoned road. Every once and a while we would stop to load gathered vegetation and the occasional rabbit, bird or rat we were able to catch. Of course we ended up spending ten extra minutes wrapping eat dead animal in plastic and then making sure each package was properly sealed so the blood smell wouldn't attract unwanted guest.  
The sky was getting darker and we were just getting ready to turn around when Denise decided to suddenly start a conversation, breaking the peaceful silence. "You know, you could lighten up a bit. We're all trying our hardest to survive."  
"There's no fun in lightening up." I replied sarcastically.  
"That is such a typical answer from you. The only reason you weren't booted out of the community when Van Zan showed up, was because Hector wouldn't allow it. Most of us were all for it."  
"Yeah, like I believe that one." I scoffed.  
"You shit. We wanted you out. You're father was fucking insane and bleed us dry. And as for you, you never pulled your own wait, just kept making trouble and making our lives hell. Why do you think you were assigned a group so young? If you die on a mission then we'd all be-"  
"Shut up!" I was taking it worse than I should of. But something she said struck a cord.  
"Hell the only people who would miss you would be Mika and Harvey, and that maybe and exaggeration. They're the only ones who really stood up for you." she was smirking now.  
"Look if you don't shut up I'm going..." I began to threaten.  
"You're going to what?" she interrupted me, challenging my next move. Before I could answer we heard a blood-curdling scream. In the blink of an eye we jumped out of the truck and were running towards the cries. Trees passed in a whirl and the forest grew darker.  
When I saw the seen a part of me became paralyzed. A Runner larger than bull cow, had a human's body in its powerful jaws and it was swinging the body wildly. It was a woman, she was still alive. I was in a trance as I watched the carnage, until I heard the shots of a powerful rifle. I snapped my head to the right to see a figure dressed in a pile of rages and fur, emerging from the trees, firing blindly at the Runner. Soon we were all firing, trying to hit the eyes. The only soft spot on the monster.  
Runners are smaller than Breathers, but they have the tough scaly skin that Breathers have. Their heads are thick, with ears far back on the heads and eyes close to the blunt snout. Hundreds of sharp, terrible teeth lined their mouths.  
I aimed at the thrashing head, hoping to hit the beast and have the bullet count. But I couldn't concentrate with the screams of the woman echoing through my ears. I aimed low, and closed my eyes; I took the shot. Her cries suddenly stopped, as did my heart, and my soul. I tried to convince myself she was in a better place, like the good Reverend said. But, I couldn't believe in God. Not with those monsters destroying our world.  
I don't know who hit fatal shot, but the beast hit the ground and the Creepers were all over it. Trying to kill it while it was stunned. I just stood there looking at the carcass of the woman. Her face had been beautiful once. Now a look of terror and pain was frozen on her features. I think I fainted then, because the world went black. I awoke some time later, finding myself in the back of the truck with a dead Runner at my feet.  
"Welcome back Beka." Tony greeted me. "You went out like a light as soon as the thing was dead."  
"Sorry." I whispered and smiled weakly.  
"No problem." Tony replied. "You feeling okay. You look sick." I felt sick. I was trying hard to fight the nauseas that suddenly was trying to over come me.  
"I'll be fine." I lied.  
"Good, because we have to get this stripped of scales and ready for packaging before we reach the compound." he gestured towards the Runner that filled up most of the truck bed, leaving only a small space for the Creepers. I wanted to hurl. Food was food, we ate the Breathers or Runners that we could kill because they were full of mean and meat was scarce now a days. A running joke in the community is they taste like chicken.  
Harvey had his foot on the pedal, making the truck shift left and right uncontrollably. Tony pulled out two hunting knives handing one to me. "Ready to start cutting?" I groaned.  
As the others started butchering the Runner, skinning it. I adverted my eyes, only to see a stranger. Golden hair, dark brown eyes, wearing the same heavy furs and rags that the woman had been wearing. He had been the mysterious shooter. He was the companion to the woman. He didn't look much older than me and he had this blank, emotionless stare. I felt suddenly very sorry for him.  
"Beka?" Tony was annoyed. I don't remember anything more than that, only turning and vomiting. Then there was black. 


End file.
